This week’s House offered some valuable lessons in terms of how we handle certain situations that involve some sort of behavior modification. The question becomes, what is the best approach? Like our star diagnostician, we had three cases to dissect and diagnose. Let’s take a look at them. Shall we?
Let’s start with our playboy Chase. Chase’s social networking site ends up displaying a very…detailed….picture of Chase that isn’t exactly an accurate representation of his assets, at least according to him. It seems someone has been scorned by him, hacked his social networking account, and even stole his credit card information using it pay for a very generous charity donation. It’s established that the culprit is someone who was at the wedding he attended for the board chairman. The problem is that he was an active little bunny with three women. As much as he thinks he has this narrowed down to these three women, he ends up being mistaken. Apparently he was having a lovely conversation with the sister of one of the women, with whom he had relations. They had several things in common but when she said she didn’t sleep with a man on a first meeting, Chase suddenly had to use the bathroom and left her high and dry. Basically, Chase was punishing her for having morals. Unfortunately, she ended up having the upper hand by using her smarts as the stick to punish him for his bad behavior. Of course the true bitter pill he swallowed was her rejection of a date with him after they had made amends. Did Chase learn his lesson on being a player? This time I think so. People do have feelings and the very act of dismissing them only opens the door to trouble. Chase did certainly get a slap in the hand. It reminds me of the show’s theme….”you can’t always get what you want.” Chase’s desire to have a good time clouded his eyes to the possibility of a stable relationship. There is no doubt that Chase is still having issues from his failed marriage to Cameron to the point where he may psychologically only view himself as a “pretty face.” He can’t recognize his value. Until he does, he may still continue to make mistakes in his love life. Regardless, I think he did learn a lesson from this stick of reality.
Our second case presents us with the patient of the week, a drill sergeant named Driscoll, whose son ends up in his military camp for juveniles who’ve gotten caught in the tangled web of crime. The twist here is that his son, Landon, has no idea that he’s Driscoll’s son. It seems our patient of the week is a deadbeat dad who left Landon’s mom when he was a young. Landon’s mom became ill and passed away, leaving Landon to endure a troubled life and one in which he found himself in the foster care system. There seems to be two metaphorical sticks in this case. Landon, who ends up in the hospital with Driscoll, is dealt the tough love approach by enduring both physically and mentally exhausting activities at the camp in order to adjust his bad behavior and attitude. Lacking love in his life, Landon still remains rebellious even to the point of stealing Masters’ car keys to escape. According to Masters, all that this boy needed was love and not the hard stick with which he was being dealt. Of course, that was until he stole her keys.
For the patient of the week, Driscoll, his stick came in the fact that the son he abandoned had become a troubled teen. The lack of a father figure in Landon’s life may have contributed to his antics. There is no greater reality check than to have your mistakes amplified in front of your eyes. As Driscoll soon figured out, actions do have consequences. The point is learning from those mistakes in order to attain the most desirable result. What I thought was a great illustration of the carrot or stick approach happened when both Landon and Driscoll were in the room together. Driscoll breezes past a show Landon likes, Jersey Shore, much to his dismay. But after Landon changes his attitude and becomes polite with Masters, Driscoll turns on Jersey Shore and hands Landon the remote to the hospital room television. Landon got rewarded for displaying the proper behavior. Rather than the stick, Driscoll used the carrot approach.
So, did anything work with these two in regards to the carrot or stick approach? Well, for Driscoll, I think facing the reality of what his abandonment did to Landon helped him learn his lesson. Although it took him until almost the end of the episode to admit to Landon that he was his father, he realized the importance of what that meant and how much Landon needed it in his life. As for Landon, for me it seems unclear because we don’t know what happened after he got out of Princeton. The hopeful aspect is that he now does have a father in his life from whom he can learn. He’s not alone in this world and had someone to help guide him the right direction.
Our last case is House and Rachel. Cuddy wants to get Rachel into the prestigious pre-school. However, House just doesn’t think she has the intelligence to be accepted into this pre-school. Rather than face a disappointed Cuddy, House takes it upon himself to coach Rachel. Even though he mocks by calling her a “paste sandwich,” “lump if clay” and a “moron,” we are soon to find out that the doctor develops a connection with her. Treating her like a dog, he does manage to train her to play the toys that the pre-school uses like a pro. Yes, House cheated but he wouldn’t be House if he didn’t. He even gave her doodles as treats. House took the carrot approach with Rachel and he succeeded. Funny thing is, Rachel without knowing it used the stick approach with House. She was defiant in not wanting to play with the toys he brought or name the color he wanted her to name. At this age, children are smarter than we think. This is based on experience of dealing with them. I think Rachel secretly just wanted House’s affections. He hasn’t exactly treated her with love and warmth. Yet, through her cooperation with him during her training, she was modifying his behavior. I don’t think either one of them was aware of that fact. You see….by House working with Rachel, he was in the stages of forming a connection with her on a much greater scale. He was giving her the attention she probably was seeking from him. As House was helping her, he began to see that she wasn’t as big a “lump of clay” that he thought she was. They were bonding. When Rachel lied about playing “See the Monkey” to Cuddy, House was proud of that. He admired her early ability to lie like a pro….as only House would. He was bragging to clinic patient about it and even the patient started to recognize House’s fondness for Rachel. Even more interesting was the very fact that House didn’t have to at Rachel’s play date, but he came anyway. Kind of like a dad going to their child’s big game after practicing with him/her. House even looked a little dejected when Rachel was turned down for the pre-school. However, Rachel getting into the pre-school wasn’t the true carrot here. After House tells Cuddy that Rachel’s a “smart kid” and that she’ll be all right, Rachel climbs into House’s lap to snuggle with him. Now, that was House’s true carrot…..a simple act of affection.
The idea of carrot or stick for me doesn’t necessarily deal with the literal idea of reward and punishment. Our own words can make a difference whether you’re praising someone or explaining the idea of right and wrong. Sometimes the journey to the desired behavior isn’t as clear cut as we think. Actions and words that seem meaningless at first may turn out to be the things that make the difference.
Which method is better? I guess it depends on the situation. In this day and age physical punishment is frowned upon. If it is then how did some of us survive the spankings we used to get as children? Is psychology the answer to behavior modification? Was Pavlov onto to something as he trained that dog? Which method yields the best results? To you get more with the stick than the carrot or vice versa? This is something that can be greatly debated at length. All I know is, Chase learned that not all women are going to fall for his playboy approach. The patient learned what happens when you abandon you obligations as a parent. House learned the value of parental pride and attention and what that means to a child.
The next episode on February 7th looks intense based on the promos. I loathe hiatuses. But alas, absence makes the heart grow fonder.
In any case, that’s this week’s edition of Diagnosing House. As always thanks for reading and please feel free to leave a comment in the comment section. I’d love to read your thoughts.
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